5hmC Analysis TimelineDecember 10, 2012EpiGenie has probably covered developments in 5hmC more than any topic the last couple of years, so we’ve compiled this timeline for you. Scroll along to see what you may have missed if you’ve been out of the loop or lab for a sabbatical.
New and Improved: Multiplexed Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing (RRBS)December 7, 2012These days, we’re all about multi-tasking—talking on our cell phones while placing our cappuccino order at Starbucks and tweeting about it all on our tablets. In that same vein, researchers report an optimized protocol for multi-tasking (well, technically “multiplexing”) reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) for ramped-up DNA methylation data. RRBS is great, churning out methylation […]
The Daily Rhythms of Transcription and the EpigenomeDecember 7, 2012We all have a daily routine. For much of the EpiGenie office staff, that includes getting out of bed, brushing our teeth, going to work, grabbing a coffee, clocking a few hours on Facebook and complaining that there aren’t enough hours in the day. Now, researchers say that transcription and epigenetic modifications in mouse liver […]
Epigenetic Drift in Stem CellsNovember 28, 2012Living for a while in a new environment can have a big effect on how you dress, talk, and act. Just listen to Madonna’s British accent. Likewise, taking bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) out of the body and into the in vitro cell-culture environment can change them—but not necessarily for the better. In order […]
Lentiviral Vectors Can Cause Epigenetic ModificationsNovember 20, 2012Stem cell programming has been buzzing the last few years and with recent work suggesting that epigenetic and ncRNA factors are manipulative enough to star in TV drama, we expect the excitement to continue. But according to a recent report, researchers may need to keep close tabs on how the very methods they use to […]
EpiGenie 5hmC Technology GuideOctober 31, 2012A couple of years ago, researchers keen to analyze 5-hmC had a couple of options, but those early approaches couldn’t quite satisfy all of their increasing demands. Fast-forward a bit and it’s a very different story. Today there’s a plethora of options, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. As a result, one of the […]
GC Content and CpG Islands Keep Chromatin Open for TranscriptionOctober 30, 2012The word “island” conjures up images of a tropical paradise with a sandy beach and a sunny sky—a nice place to hang out. In a similar way, CpG islands turn out to be nice places for Pol II to hang out without worrying about pesky nucleosomes getting in the way, according to researchers in France […]
5-hmC Sequencing on a BudgetOctober 30, 2012Whether you’re the head of a lab, household, or leading a country, budgets are a reality. Like those old jeans you can’t seem to donate, they seem to get tighter every year. So when slick, new methods surface that tackle some tough challenges like single nucleotide resolution 5-hmC profiling, researchers’ excitement is quickly tempered by […]
Three Ways to Get Intimate with Epigenetic MarksOctober 24, 2012The days of dealing with regional estimates of epigenetic marks like histone modifications and DNA methylation are just about behind us. That’s right, the maps that lie ahead will be less Thomas Guide and more GPS. Drs. Gabriel Zentner and Steve Henikoff recently took some time off from being all-star cancer researchers and pulled together […]
Epigenetic Regulators (miRNAs, lncRNAs) Get Regulated EpigeneticallyOctober 20, 2012With Halloween coming up, perhaps it is fitting that the authors of two recent papers describe a “tangled web” of epigenetic regulations. In one paper, researchers suggest that DNA methylation and perhaps other epigenetic modifications disrupt long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) activity. In the other paper, a different team shows that DNAm messes with the miRNA […]
